Patrol

Florida Deputy Helps Reunite Family with Missing Dog

A Sarasota County (FL) Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol deputy helped reunite a missing German shepherd with its family. (Photo: Sarasota County SO/Facebook)

A vigilant kayaker and a Sarasota County (FL) Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol deputy helped reunite a missing German shepherd with its family.

Bob Welter said the 5-year-old dog named Rex was a few pounds lighter when he arrived home Monday after having been missing for eight days and smelled like “sea shells and clam,” but the Welter family was happy to have him back.

Welter left the dog with his aunt March 21, while the family attended a baby shower in Illinois. But several days later, the dog vanished from his aunt’s home. They surmise the 105-pound canine missed his family and escaped through the lanai screen, reports the Herald-Tribune.

Rex was spotted swimming in the Intracoastal Waterway on Monday morning by kayaker Kara Mullen, who unsuccessfully tried to rescue the lost dog.

Meantime, the Sheriff’s Office dispatched Marine Deputy Mike Watson and Air-1 helicopter. Watson met Welter and his son Kyle on the dock and took them to a mangrove island. They retrieved Rex within an hour with the help of a few good Samaritans.

“I don’t know who to praise,” Welter said. “The word hero to me is just a word, but what he (Watson) did was way beyond what he should have done.”

Scanner audio captured an officer’s account of what happened at the scene, CWBChicago reports: “Ten people surrounded me, indicating that they had firearms. And one person pulled him away from me, holding his waist, indicating that he would use a firearm against me.”

There were so many police officers, sheriff’s deputies and Highway Patrol troopers that the court appearance had to be moved out of Justice Court to Judge John Larson’s Courtroom Number Three on the third floor of the Missoula County Courthouse.

The vehicle pursuit ended in the town of Kittitas where Deputy Thompson was backed up by Officer Benito Chavez. The suspect exited the vehicle and exchanged shots with the two law enforcement officers.

Sarah Wilson and her boyfriend were arrested during a stop in Chesapeake after officers allegedly found drugs in the 1996 Lexus the couple were driving. Police said they handcuffed Wilson and, while attempting to apprehend her boyfriend, 27-year-old Holden Medlin, he became combative and ran away from the scene.